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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 

MY attention has just been called to an address 
delivered to the students of the School of 
Mines and Metallurgy, at the School of Mines 
and Metallurgy of the University of Missouri, at Rolla, 
on June 8, 1909, by Calvin M. Woodward, Ph. D., 
LL. D., then Dean of the School of Engineering and 
Architecture of Washington University. This address, 
entitled "Education for Utility and Culture", has been 
issued as * ' The University of Missouri School of Mines 
and Metallurgy, Bulletin, June, 1909". Since, there- 
fore, this address is published under the auspices and 
at the expense of the State University, it would ap- 
pear that the statements of Prof. Woodward contained 
therein are endorsed by the University of Missouri. 

The seven opening sentences of that address are as 
follows : 

*^The early Universities came into being as a 
part of the grand revival which prevailed in Italy, 
Germany, France, and England in the 14th and 
15th centuries. They were the joint product of 
Protestantism and the art of printing. The former 
declared it the privilege of all to read the New 
Testament and the Fathers in the original Greek 
and Latin. The art of printing laid open to all the 
world all the treasures of ancient learning. 

''Oxford and Cambridge came into notice about 
the year 1300, and for some four centuries they 
were the recipients of repeated gifts and benefac- 
tions from the rulers and the nobility of England. 
As the Universities grew the course of study 
slowly expanded. In the beginning they were 
largely Latin Grammar Schools for monks and 
priests." ' 



1 To the paragraphs criticised in the following- pages, Professor 
Woodward's attention was courteously invited in November, 1909. 
It is to be regretted that as yet Professor Woodward has not seen 
fit to heed this invitation. 



— 2 — 

The statements contained in the above quotation are 
either incorrect or misleading. Manifestly the purpose 
of these statements is to give the confiding, listening 
student a sketch of alleged early University conditions 
and in doing so to credit Protestantism with the pro- 
duction of the ''early Universities" and with the 
growth of learning. By plain inference, if not by di- 
rect statement, the student who heard this address and 
antecedently knew no better, attentive to this ex 
cathedra utterance, could not but be prejudiced 
against that established form of Christianity which 
existed before Protestantism and which exists today, 
and which is the religion of millions of citizens of the 
United States and of hundreds of thousands of citizens 
and tax-payers in the State of Missouri. I shall pres- 
ently expose the inaccuracies (not to say absurdities) 
embraced in these opening sentences of Prof. Calvin 
M. Woodward's lecture; but the questions which I first 
venture to suggest are these : 

What right has the University of Missouri, sup- 
ported as it is by the tax-payers of this State, in any 
of its branches, by the publication of an address con- 
taining such statements, to permit Catholicism to be 
attacked, at least indirectly, and Protestantism favored 
at the cost of Catholicism? 

If the University of Missouri, or any of its branches, 
is to be utilized, by designing persons, for the purpose 
of supporting Protestantism as against Catholicism, 
the sooner the tax-payers of this State know it the bet- 
ter.^ These are the first thoughts which I wish to 
suggest. 



t See Constitution of Missouri, Article XI, Sec. 11. 

." ."is 
iS'^: ■■'■■"■ 



— 3 — 

Let it be clearly understood, my quarrel is not with 
Protestantism; I am neither opposing nor supporting 
it. Protestantism has rights, no doubt ; so has Catholi- 
cism. Neither, as an institution, is entitled, under our 
Constitution, to the support of the State. Much less 
is it just or fair to bolster up one at the expense of the 
other by statements or suggestions which are not in 
accord with facts, but which are given currency by be- 
ing published under the auspices of one of our leading 
State institutions of learning. 

I take it that our State Constitution imposes abso- 
lute neutrality on the State and its institutions in mat- 
ters religious; in such matters, so far as the State is 
concerned, except in the matter of religious corpora- 
tions holding the title to property, it is ''hands off "!^ 
But since it is clear, in my opinion, that an injustice 
has been done (wittingly or unwittingly is immaterial 
here) and the law of neutrality in the premises in- 
fringed, I claim the privilege, as a citizen of Missouri, 
of defending that abused law and proclaiming the 
truth, in the interest of true liberty and religious free- 
dom under the law — the price of which is eternal vigi- 
lance. 

I have relatives and warm personal friends who are 
Protestants. I respect their sincere religious views 
and they, I am sure, respect mine. The questions here, 
as shall presently be seen, have nothing whatever to 
do with any form of religious belief; they relate to a 
rule of conduct affecting a state institution, and also 
to certain plain matters of fact. 

I shall now proceed to show the errors involved in 
the sentences quoted above, which form the very open- 



1 See Constitution of Missouri, Article II, Sees. 5, 6, 7, 8. 



_- 4 — 

ing remarks of Prof. Woodward's address — errors 
which, it would seem, are unpardonable in one who oc- 
cupies a chair in a University,^ is credited in this pub- 
lished address with the titles of Doctor of Philosophy 
and Doctor of Laws, and who professes, in this ad- 
dress, much learning concerning the history of Uni- 
versities. 

The Early Universities Came Into Being Long Before 
the Fourteenth Century 

S. R. Maitland, D. D., F. R. S., F. S. A., some-time 
Librarian to the late Archbishop of Canterbury and 
Keeper of the MSS. at Lambeth, has published a book 
entitled "The Dark Ages". The copy which I have 
before me is the fifth edition, with an introduction by 
Mr. Frederick Stokes, M. A., and was published in 
1890 by John Hodges, London. In this book, which 
shows much erudition and scholarship. Dr. Maitland 
says, at page 27 : 

"The period which I have more particularly in 
view is that extending from A. D. 800 to A. D. 
1200 ; and to this period I wish the reader to apply 
any general statement or remark which I may offer 
respecting the dark or middle ages." 

Dr. Maitland then proceeds to prove, to a demon- 
stration, the ignorance which has generally prevailed 
and still largely prevails concerning that period of four 
hundred years, that is, A. D. 800 to A. D. 1200, com- 
monly called "the Dark Ages". At page XV of the 
introduction to this work we find the following state- 
ment of Frederick Stokes, M. A. : 



1 Aft3r the manuscript of this article had been sent to the 
printer, the St. Louis papers announced that Prof. Woodward had 
resigned his above-named position with the Washington University. 



— 6 — 

"When the Dark Ages began, the Heptarchy 
was still standing; when they closed, the conquest 
of Ireland had begun. During the interval Eng- 
land had been welded into a single kingdom, and 
the main outlines of that Constitution, which has 
survived in its chief features down to our own 
days, had been formed. The Universities of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge had been founded. A code of 
laws was drawn up by Alfred the Great, and subse- 
quently revised by Edward the Confessor — the 
last English king who obtained the honour of can- 
onization. The Irish schools had a high reputa- 
tion for learning and piety. These are only a few 
examples of the rapid and solid progress of Cliris- 
tendom during the Dark Ages. Others will be 
found recorded in Maitland's work, although the 
author's object may be said to be critical rather 
than constructive. Maitland was in truth one of 
those in whom the critical faculty existed in its 
highest perfection, and his ecclesiastical position 
enabled him to deal impartially with both sides of 
his subject." (Italics mine.) 

From the sentence which I italicized in the above 
quotation we find, on the authority of Mr. Stokes and 
Dr. Maitland, that Oxford and Cambridge had been 
founded in the "Dark Ages", and consequently before 
the fourteenth century had begun. 

Even so ordinary a hand-book as the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, 9th edition, vol. 18, page 99, would have in- 
formed Prof. Woodward that Oxford had "come into 
being" before the thirteenth century, and that: 

"In the 13th and 14th centuries, as the Univer- 
sity grew, an increasing number of students gath- 
ered in Oxford, filling the numerous halls and 
swelling the size, if not the wealth, of the place." 

Prof. Woodward would hardly deny that even a Uni- 
versity can only grow after it has "come into being", 



— 6 - 

so that it must have been in esse before it grew; and 
the Encyclopedia Britannica refers to its growth in 
the thirteenth century. 

In the History of the Holy Eucharist in Great 
Britain, by Bridgett, edited by Herbert Thurston and 
published by Burns & Oates, London, 1908, p. 242, in 
respect to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
the author states : 

"Both Universities have contended for a fabu- 
lous antiquity, and though schools existed and 
were much frequented both at Oxford and Cam- 
bridge in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, yet no 
royal charter or letter is known earlier than the 
reign of Henry III." 

Hence the date of the royal charter or letter referred 
to is somewhere in the neighborhood of A. D. 1217. 
In a footnote at page 242 the same author says : 

''Matthew Paris, writing in the year 1209, says: 
'Three thousand clerics, including masters and 
scholars, retired from Oxford, so that not one re- 
mained of the whole university. Some went to 
Cambridge, some to Beading. Oxford was left 
empty.' (Historia, p. 228, ed. Wats)." 

So that, according to Matthew Paris, who wrote the 
above in the year 1209, Cambridge was in existence 
then. 

Newman refers to the fact that in the last years of 
Henry III, which would be early in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, there were many students at Oxford (Newman, 
Historical Sketches, vol. 3, p. 329). 

Laringay in Barnard's American Journal of Edu- 
cation, vol. 22, p. 324, assigns the following dates for 
the foundations of Oxford and Cambridge : 



— 7 — 

{a) Oxford, 1130; (h) Cambridge, 1257. 

Hogan, Abbe, J. F., in the Dublin Review, volume for 
1894: 

(a) Oxford was founded ''some time in the eleventh 
century" (page 290) ; 

(h) Cambridge founded in 1318. 

Milburn, J. M., in the Dublin Review, volume for 
1899; quoting from Father Denifle's ''Die Universi- 
taeten des Mittelalters ", says: 

"Indeed Father Denifle treats them (Oxford and 
Cambridge) as belonging to different groups of 
Universities, placing Oxford among the 'promi- 
nent Universities which were not founded but 
grew', whilst Cambridge is perhaps somewhat ar- 
bitrarily regarded as largely due to a Bull of Pope 
John XXII" (p. 315). 

"The schools of Oxford date from about 1167 
(p. 318). 

Milburn, in the London Quarterly Review, volume 
for 1896, takes the view that Cambridge may date her 
origin from 1209 when the exodus from Oxford took 
place. The subsequent Bull of Pope John XXII, in 
1318, merely confirmed the University in certain aca- 
demic practices already assumed (p. 464). 

Rashdall, H., Universities of Europe in the Middle 
Ages, Vol. II, Part II: 

(a) Oxford founded in 1167 (p. 332) ; (h) Cambridge 
founded in 1209 (p. 349). "The first appearance of 
the Cambridge schools on the page of genuine history 
is in connection with the great dispersion in 1209" 

(p. 545). 

The above are rather respectable authorities. 

To revert to the Encyclopedia Britannica, with re- 
spect to Oxford and Cambridge and other "early Uni- 



— 8 — 

versities", the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9tli edition, 
Vol. 23, p. 838, 8liows that in 1231 and 1233 Royal and 
Papal letters afford satisfactory proof that by that 
time the University of Cambridge was already an 
organized body with a Chancellor at its head. Oxford, 
the same authority, states, at page 837 of Vol. 23, 
"Came into being" as early as 1133, and in 1257 depu- 
ties from Oxford, when preferring their appeal to the 
King, spoke of the University as " schola secunda eccle- 
siae, or second only to Paris"; and affirmed that its 
numbers then were some three thousand. The same 
authority, Vol. 23, p. 836, states that the University of 
Naples was founded by Emperor Frederick II in the 
year 1225, as a school of Theology, Jurisprudence, the 
Arts and Medicine. The same authority, Vol. 23, pp. 
834, 835, shows that the University of Paris "came 
into being" in the twelfth century, between the years 
1150 and 1170, and * 'became the model not only of the 
Universities of France north of the Loire, but also for 
the great majority of those of Central Europe, as well 
as for Oxford and Cambridge". The same authority, 
Vol. 23, p. 833, shows that the University of Bologna 
"came into being" in the twelfth century, and that 
"we learn from Odofred that in the time of the eminent 
jurist Azo, who lectured at Bologna about 1200, the 
number of students there amounted to some ten thou- 
sand". The same authority, I. c, states that in 1253 
Pope Innocent IV accorded his sanction to the new 
statutes of the University of Bologna. 

Therefore, we find, on the best authority, that the 
University of Paris "came into being" in the twelfth 
century ; the University of Bologna in the twelfth cen- 
tury; the University of Naples in the first quarter of 
the thirteenth century; the University of Oxford in 



— 9 — 

the twelfth century; and the University of Cambridge 
in the very early part of the thirteenth century, and, 
according to Matthew Paris, at least as early as 1209. 

These authorities also establish the fact that all of 
the ** early Universities" herein named, except, pos- 
sibly, Cambridge, had attained the highest renown long- 
before the beginning of the fourteenth century. 

Therefore, it is historically not a fact that "the early 
Universities came into being as a part of the grand re- 
vival which prevailed in Italy, Germany, France and 
England in the 14th and 15th centuries". On the con- 
trary, a revival in literature, the arts and sciences fol- 
lowed as a consequence of the existence of those great 
seats of learning in Europe. All of this is admirably 
pointed out in Dr. Maitland's book, "The Dark Ages", 
and also briefly by the following paragraph of Mr. 
Stokes' introduction to that book, which paragraph 
immediately precedes the quotation heretofore made: 

' ' At the beginning of the ninth century the foun- 
dations of modern Europe had been laid. Three 
centuries earlier the Western Empire had per- 
ished before the incursions of the barbarians, and 
during the interval between the fall of the older 
Western Empire and its restoration under Charle- 
magne, the history of Europe had been an almost 
unbroken record of war, destruction, and ravage. 
The marvel is not that Christianity should have 
been wanting in enlightenment, but that the Chris- 
tian Church survived those terrible centuries when 
Europe was thrown into the crucible. In the ninth 
century, however, the storm of anarchy and ravage 
had begun to abate. The genius of Charlemagne 
had united under a single sceptre the whole West- 
ern part of Continental Europe, including what is 
now France, Germany, Northern Italy, and the 
Western part of Austria. England, heretofore 
split up into several small kingdoms, founded by 
the Angles and Saxons, and for the most part en- 



— 10 - 

gaged in constant warfare, was united by Egbert 
in a single kingdom. Here, as on the Continent, 
the ages preceding the date w^hich Maitland takes 
as the beginning of the Dark Ages — A. D. 800 — 
had been times of invasion, slaughter and con- 
quest. There can be no doubt that the condition 
of England at the end of the eighth century was 
far inferior in wealth and civilization to the state 
in which it had been left at the withdrawal of the 
Roman eagles. Almost every vestige of civiliza- 
tion had perished under the attacks of the Teu- 
tonic invaders. The work of founding a polity and 
a civilization had to be recommenced, and this is 
one of the salient facts to be borne in mind in judg- 
ing of the Dark Ages. The men of those ages had 
to recreate the political and social world. They 
had to rebuild almost from the foundation. Not 
quite ; for Christianity, the basis of European civ- 
ilization, had not only survived the storms of the 
age of invasion, but had to a large extent con- 
verted the barbarians themselves. In Spain, in- 
deed, the Moors were master from Gibraltar to the 
Pyrenees, but, throughout the rest of Western Eu- 
rope, Christianity was dominant." 

The Early Universities Were Not "The Joint Product 

of Protestantism and the Art of Printing"; Neither 

Were They the Product of Protestantism or 

the Art of Printing 

The next sentence of the first paragraph of Prof. 
Woodward's lecture is: "They" (the early Universi- 
ties) "were the joint product of Protestantism and the 
art of printing." 

Since the ' 'early Universities ' ', as we have seen and 
as true history attests, "came into being" before the 
fourteenth century, and as Protestantism, as true his- 
tory also attests, did not come "into being" until the 
sixteenth century, it is impossible to see how "the 
early Universities" were in any way the product of 
Protestantism. 



— li- 
lt is also difficult to see, in the light of the plain facts 
of history, how ' ' the early Universities ' ', which * ' came 
into being" before the thirteenth century, were in any 
way the product of "the art of printing", even if we 
grant the impossible proposition that the printing 
press, potent as it may be for good or evil, could pro- 
duce a University. 

The three men who co-operated in inventing and de- 
veloping the art of printing were John Gutenberg of 
Mainz, the actual inventor, Faust, his financial sup- 
porter, and the copyist, Schoeffer, the latter being 
Gutenberg's talented assistant. The invention and de- 
velopment of the art of printing fell in the period be- 
tween A. D. 1450 and A. D. 1456. Anyone who knows 
anything about the history of the art of printing knows 
that the above is true ; at all events, it is a fact. There- 
fore, we leave it to Prof. Woodward to explain, how, in 
the light of the fact that "the early Universities came 
into being" before the thirteenth century, it is possible 
that the art of printing, which did not exist until the 
middle of the fifteenth century, even with the aid of 
Protestantism (which did not exist until the sixteenth 
century) could produce "the early Universities" which 
had existed before the thirteenth century. I submit 
that it would be almost impossible to find elsewhere so 
many inaccurate statements and such unwarranted con- 
clusions within the compass of two such short sen- 
tences as those which form the very beginning of Prof. 
Woodward's address, and which we here repeat: 

"The early Universities came into being as a 
part of the grand revival which prevailed in Italy, 
Germany, France and England in the 14th and 
15tli centuries. They were the joint product of 
Protestantism and the art of printing." 



— 13 — 

Prof. Woodward's statements just quoted, in their 
remarkable inaccuracy, remind us of a certain defini- 
tion of a crab which is reported to have been given 
thus: "A red fish that walks backward." Of this 
definition the polite French scientist said, that it was 
accurate in all respects, except the following: (a) A 
crab was not red until boiled; {h) it was not a fish; (c) 
it did not walk backward. 

Most, if not all, of the great and "early Universities" 
of Europe were founded by the Popes or by Catholic 
sovereigns, or from those sources received their char- 
ters or confirmations. All, moreover, were fostered 
and encouraged by the Popes. History proves this to 
be a fact. The article in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 
** Universities", vol. 23, 9th edition, as far as it goes, 
confirms this very clearly. 

As to the "early Universities" in England (Oxford 
and Cambridge) we would refer not only to the last- 
named article in Encyclopedia Britannica, but also to 
the following: 

Hogan, Abbe, J. F., in the Dublin Review for 1894: 

{a) Oxford was not founded by the Pope, but soon 
came under his approbation (p. 279). 

{b) "The first authentic mention of Cambridge 
dates from 1209. But the University could 
scarcely be said to be definitely constituted un- 
til Edward II wrote in 1318 to Pope John XXII 
asking him as a special favor to confirm and 
perpetuate the establishment, which the Pontiff 
immediately did" (p. 315), (though, as shown 
ante, it "came into being" a century before). 

Milburn, in the Dublin Eeview for 1899: 

' * Whatever the theory accepted as the adequate 
explanation of the development of the Oxford 



— 13 — 

schools into a University, there can scarcely be 
any question that these schools were in some way 
or other connected with the Church." (p. 331). 

Rashdall, in Universities of Europe in the Middle 
Ages, vol, II, part II: 

(a) "A Legatine Ordinance of 1214 — is the first 
document in the nature of a charter of privi- 
leges which the University of Oxford can 
boast." (p. 349). 

(b) Oxford was confirmed in its privileges by In- 
nocent IV in 1254. (p. 367). 

(c) Cambridge was confirmed in its privileges as a 
University by John XXII in 1318. (p. 647), (though, 
as shown ante, it ''came into being" a century be- 
fore). 

The New Testament in Common and General Use Long 
Before the So-Called Reformation 

The next and third sentence of Prof. Woodward's 
opening address is as follows: 

''The former" (Protestantism) "declared it the 
privilege of all to read the New Testament and 
the Fathers in the original Greek and Latin." 

I presume this is Prof. Woodward's way of assert- 
ing the thread-bare charge, absolutely disproved by 
history, that the "open Bible", or freedom to read 
the Bible, is due to Protestantism. 

While it is true now, and has ever been true, that 
the Catholic Church has forbidden its members to read 
inaccurate translations of the Bible, nevertheless it is 
a fact that in the 15th century, and therefore long be- 
fore the so-called Reformation, English translations 
of the Bible had been printed and were in very com- 



— 14 - 

mon and general use among people who could read, 
as well as numerous translations of tlie Bible in the 
vulgar tongue in Italy and Germany. It was also the 
privilege of all who could read Latin and Greek, be- 
fore the Reformation, "to read the New Testament 
and the Fathers in the original Greek and Latin". 
There has never been any general law of the Catholic 
Church prohibiting the examination or reading of the 
Holy Scriptures or the works of the Fathers in Latin, 
Greek or the vernacular. What the Church does for- 
bid and has always forbidden is the reading of cor- 
rupted and inaccurate translations. 

Sir Thomas More, writing in 1530 (see English 
Works, ed. 1557, pp. 233 and 234), says: 

"I myself have seen and can show you Bibles, 
fair and old, written in English which have been 
known and seen by the Bishop of the Diocese and 
left in the hands of laymen and women, whom 
he knew to be good and Catholic people, who used 
the books with devotion and soberness." 

See Gasquet's The Eve of the Reformation, chapter 
VIII, p. 239, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 

Another example of the open way in which the read- 
ing of the Bible was advocated in the fifteenth century, 
and therefore long before the so-called Reformation, 
is given in the last-named work of Gasquet, page 275, 
taken from page 345 of Caxton's translation of the 
Vitae Patrum, published by Wynkyn de Ward, in 1495. 
This contains an exhortation to all his readers to study 
the Holy Scriptures, the exhortation being in these 
words : 

"To read them is in part to the felicity eternal, 
for in them a man may see what he ought to do 
in conversation * * * oft to read purgeth 
the soul from sin, it engendereth dread of God, 



— 15 — 

and it keeps the soul from eternal damnation. As 
food nourisheth the body, in likewise as touching 
the soul we be nourished by the lecture and read- 
ing of Scripture. * * * Be diligent and busy 
to read the Scriptures, for in reading them the 
natural wit and understanding are augmented in- 
somuch that men find that which ought to be left 
(undone) and take that whereof may ensue profit 
infinite." 

As for English people clamoring for the English 
version of the Bible, or that to permit them to read 
the Bible in Greek or Latin, or in the vernacular, was 
a privilege of which they had been deprived before 
the Eeformation, all such charges or insinuations are 
contrary to the facts of history. When Henry VIII 
broke with the Catholic Church, the people, far from 
clamoring for the new version of the New Testament, 
had to be forced by numerous Koyal proclamations 
and penal enactments to purchase copies thereof. See 
General History of the Christian Era by Guggenber- 
ger, 3rd ed., Herder, St. Louis, vol. 2, pp. 135 and 136, 
and a long list of authorities found in the note at 
page 136. 

As Baudrillart^ shows in his work entitled "The 
Catholic Church, the Renaissance and Protestantism" 
(Benziger Bros., New York, 1908), page 268, the Bible 
was republished in Germany more than one hundred 
times between A. D. 1452 and A. D. 1500; in ninety- 
eight Latin and sixteen German editions. This proves 
that it was translated and read in the vulgar tongue 
long before Luther and the Reformation. 



^ Baudrillart is the well known historian to whom the French 
Academy has twice decreed the highest of its rewards, the grand 
prix Oobert. 



- 16 ~ 

The same author, referring to Doellinger (Doellin- 
ger, vol. 1, p. 461, sqq.), says, at page 271: 

''One of the results of Luther's translation of 
the Bible was the decrease of such studies, because 
preachers felt obliged to use his version. During 
the whole of the Reformation not a single, com- 
plete edition of the original text of the Bible ap- 
peared in any part of Germany. The first Hebrew 
Bible was published in Protestant Germany in 
1586 by the efforts of the Elector Augustus of 
Saxony. 

"As to the Greek New Testament, not counting 
the Bale editions (the first of these was by Eras- 
mus in 1516), there was not a single edition in 
Protestant Germany until that of Leipzig in 1542, 
and this was twenty-eight years later than the 
Catholic edition of the New Testament published 
at Alcala in 1514. After which nothing more ap- 
peared until 1563." 

Prof. Woodward not only states that Protestantism 
made it the privilege of all to read the New Testa- 
ment in the original Greek and Latin, but also declared 
it the privilege of all to read ' ' the Fathers in the orig- 
inal Greek and Latin". 

As to the Fathers, Luther tells us that he had no 
esteem for them, and that he cared not a jot for them 
(Sermons, Walch, ed. vol. XII, 45, quoted by Doellin- 
ger, vol. 1, p. 460.1 Baudrillart, in his work above men- 
tioned, states (p. 273) that under the Reformers the 
study of the Fathers was excluded from the pro- 
grammes followed by candidates for the ministry. 
Baudrillart (p. 269), on the authority of Doellinger 
(Cf. Doellinger, *'La Reforme", vol. 1, p. 314) also 
says that instead of encouraging freedom of thought 
and publication, Luther admitted it for his own pur- 

1 The Catholic Church, etc., Baudrillart, 273. 



— 17 — 

poses only; for in 1529 he asked the Duke of Mecklen- 
berg to forbid the impression of the New Testament 
translated by Emser. As for Melancthon, Baudrillart, 
269, quotes thus from Corpus Reformatorum, vol. IV, p. 
549, and Epist. Melancthonis, Peucer ed., p. 535: 

"Magistrates must everwhere establish inspec- 
tors and censors, who are charged to watch librar- 
ies and printing houses, and it must be forbidden 
to publish any book without first obtaining the 
censor's permission." 

As to sciences, literature and the Universities, 
Luther was bitterly opposed to all of them. ** Every- 
where Lutheranism is paramount", Erasmus wrote to 
Pirkheimer in 1538, ''literature is dead." And Mel- 
ancthon, echoing these sentiments, said: *'In all Ger- 
many all the schools are disappearing. Woe to the 
world!" (See Baudrillart, The Catholic Church, etc., 
p. 270, Benziger, New York, 1908.) 

To quote Baudrillart again, from his work above 
mentioned, (pp. 271-2-3) : 

"Even the study of Latin was seriously hin- 
dered by the Lutheran Reformation. One can, 
however, hardly be surprised at this, for Latin 
was no longer necessary for the pastor's ministry, 
besides which in the early days of pastors a tacitly 
understood fiat went forth to bring classical stud- 
ies into contempt as much as possible. 

" 'We are sorry to learn,' wrote the Margrave 
of Brandenburg in 1528, 'that there is no longer 
the same desire to follow the schools, and we fear 
that the cause of this is largely due to the preach- 
ers who have thought to act well by decrying 
knowledge and by leading the young to take up 
manual professions under the pretext that there 
was no longer need of Latin in the Church. In 
consequence of this we order pastors to use hence- 



— 18 — 

forth all their influence to gradually bring back 
a greater love of study.' " (Doellinger, vol. I, 
p. 401.) 

''Nothing is more true than the reproach made 
to the pastors. At Wittenberg two zealous pas- 
tors, Georges Mohr and Gabriel Didymus, de- 
clared in the pulpit ' that the study of sciences was 
not only useless, but even pernicious, and that 
one could not do better than destroy colleges and 
schools.' (Doellinger, p. 400). 

"After all this was but the echo of Luther's 
invectives when he compared 'the four Faculties 
to the four soldiers who, so tradition says, cruci- 
fied our Lord.' (Doellinger, p. 450.) 

"And elsewhere he wrote: 'The god Moloch, to 
which the Jews used to sacrifice their children, is 
represented nowadays by the Universities. * * * 
Here famous people, doctors, and masters are 
manufactured in such a way that one cannot di- 
rect souls or preach without having either taken 
a degree or at least passed through the schools; 
the jackass first adorns himself with a doctor's 
hood and then only does he harness himself to the 
shafts of business. * * * The least evil that 
could happen to these unfortunate youths is to be 
led to commit every excess against nature, the 
most shameful debauchery. But what is most to 
be deplored is that they are versed in that im- 
pious and pagan knowledge which tends to miser- 
ably corrupt the purest souls and the wisest intel- 
ligences.' (Contre I'abus des messes, ed. Walch, 
vol. XIX. 1430). 

"And again: 'The High Schools deserve to be 
utterly destroyed; never since the world has been 
created have there existed more diabolical insti- 
tutions.' " (Sermons, Walch ed., vol. XII, 45, 
quoted by Doellinger, vol. I, p. 449.) 

So much for the proposition asserted by Prof. Wood- 
ward that Protestantism "declared it the privilege of 
all to read the New Testament and the Fathers in the 
original Greek and Latin". 



— 19 — 

As Dr. Maitland (a Protestant) points out in his 
book entitled "The Dark Ages", as other Protestant 
and Catholic scholars have shown, and as history at- 
tests, that we have preserved to this day the New Tes- 
tament, in any form, is due entirely to the labor of the 
early Fathers and to the subsequent labors of the Cath- 
olic Church and to the monasteries of Europe, in pre- 
serving and transcribing the manuscripts and translat- 
ing them. A large part of the work done in the mon- 
asteries, which existed in Europe in the 14th and 15th 
centuries and for centuries before, consisted in copy- 
ing, often in the form of the most beautifully illumi- 
nated editions, the New as well as the Old Testament 
and the works of the Fathers. It is to their scholar- 
ship, zeal, and arduous work not only that the New 
and the Old Testaments have been preserv^ed, as well 
as the writings of the Fathers, but that what is known 
as *' profane" literature (the classic writings of the 
Greeks and Romans, and ancient histories) was pre- 
served, so that when the art of printing came into 
being all of this valuable literature was at hand, ready 
to be reproduced by the printing press. 

It is true that the Catholic Church always warned 
its members against reading inaccurate versions of 
the New Testament, and also told its members that in 
reading the New Testament, as many of the passages 
therein are not clear to the layman even today. Cath- 
olics should turn to the Church for the interpretation 
of these passages, in the same sense, although not to 
such an important degree, as we turn to the decisions 
of the Supreme Court of the United States for the in- 
terpretation of the provisions of our Constitution. It 
is a well-known fact, referred to by Sir Thomas More 
and others and by many writers of the present age. 



— 20 - 

both Catholic and Protestant, that before the so-called 
Reformation many editions of the New Testament and 
not a few editions of the Fathers had appeared in the 
vernacular. 

The next sentence in Prof. Woodward's address is 
the following: "The art of printing laid open to all 
the world all the treasures of ancient learning. " I am 
not sure that all the treasures of ancient learning were 
known at the time that the art of printing was first 
introduced; I am reasonably certain that history at- 
tests that, due to the overrunning of Europe by the 
barbarians and owing to the wars, the sacking of mon- 
asteries and other places where valuable records of 
the treasures of ancient learning had been preserved, 
a great deal of value in the way of treasures of ancient 
learning was irreparably lost. Indeed, Dr. Maitland, 
in his book "The Dark Ages", at pages 264 and 319, 
and in many other places in this valuable work, gives 
specific instances and quotes from authorities to .show 
how, in the ruthless sacking and destruction of the 
monasteries and other valuable archives in the 16th 
century, by Calvinists and also by the so-called Re- 
formers under Henry VIII, many of the most valuable 
manuscripts were destroyed, to the irreparable loss 
of literature, and that thus much of "the treasures of 
ancient learning" was forever lost. 

It is true that the art of printing, in the sense 
that it gave an opportunity for a comparatively cheap 
reproduction of manuscripts, preserved in the "early 
Universities" and monasteries, did lay open to the 
world, more generally, such of the treasures of ancient 
learning as had before been preserved in the monaster- 
ies and early Universities and by the Popes. Imme- 
diately after the art of printing was discovered, print- 



— 21 — 

ing presses were set up in Rome and in many of the 
monasteries and elsewhere, for the purpose of print- 
ing the valuable manuscripts which had thus been pre- 
served by the "early Universities" and by the Roman 
Catholic Church through its monasteries and archives. 
What a debt, then, does not the world owe to the Cath- 
olic Church and to the monasteries and "early Uni- 
versities" and other Catholic institutions of learning, 
which had preserved the manuscripts so that the print- 
ing press could be usefully employed in reproducing 
the contents of these valuable records! 

Charles F. Lummis in his ' ' The Awakening of a Na- 
tion", showing what Spain did for civilization on this 
Continent, says, at page 50 : 

"Within revolver shot are the cradles of print- 
ing, education, art and organized charity in the 
New World; for all these things came a century 
and a half to two centuries and a half earlier in 
Mexico than in the United States. Bishop Zu- 
marrago set up here, in 1556, the first printing 
press in the Western Hemisphere; one did not 
reach the English colonies till 1638. In 1584 this 
same pioneer press printed the first music in 
America. The first New World attempt at a 
newspaper was the Mercurio Volante (Flying 
Mercuiy), Mexico. 1693— about a dozen years 
ahead of our colonies." 

The next sentence of Prof. Woodward's address is 
as follows: "Oxford and Cambridge came into no- 
tice about the year 1300, and for some four centuries 
they were the recipients of repeated gifts and bene- 
factions from the rulers and the nobility of England." 

We have already shown that Oxford and Cambridge 
existed and had come "into notice" long before the 
year 1300. History attests that both Oxford and Cam- 
bridge were very much injured by the work of Henry 



— 22 — 

VIII and had a tremendous falling off in tlie number 
of the students immediately after the so-called Eefor- 
mation. As for Oxford and Cambridge having been 
"for some four centuries * * * the recipients of 
repeated gifts and benefactions from the rulers and 
the nobility of England", it cannot be denied that both 
of these Universities, in their origin, in their subse- 
quent endowments and in their professors, were 
greatly indebted to the Roman Catholic Church. 

It is a well-known fact that after the so-called Refor- 
mation in England, Oxford and Cambridge had a great 
falling off, and that the progress of sound learning, 
which had been represented by such men as Warham, 
Sir Thomas More, Colet, and their friends (of whom 
Erasmus^ was one) was arrested. For the state of 
affairs in Elizabeth's reign see W. Harrison's History 
of England, written in 1577, edition of New Shake- 
speare Society, p. 77, etc. In a book entitled "History 
and Antiquity of University of Oxford", edited by 
Gutch, ii, page 67, Anthony Wood writes that, so far 
as Oxford is concerned, "most of the halls and hostels 
were left empty. Arts declined and ignorance began 
to take its place." In "History of the University of 
Cambridge", Fuller, it is shown that in 1545 at Cam- 
bridge the scholars petitioned Henry VIII for privi- 
leges, as they feared the destruction of the monaster- 
ies would altogether annihilate learning. And Blunt, 
in his work "The Reformation", page 387, looking 
back from the days of Edward VI to the time before 



1 Listen to Erasmus: "Does not Luther call the philosophy of 
Aristotle diabolical! Has he not written that knowledge, either 
practical or theoretical, is damned? That all knowledg-e is but sin 
and error? * * * How could such principles produce anything 
else but contempt for study?" Erasmus, Epist. adfratres Oermaniae 
inferioris. Cologne, 1561. Quoted by Doellinger, p. 444. See Bau- 
drillart, The Catholic Church, etc., p. 276. 



— 23 — 

the so-called Reformation, quotes Bishop Latimer as 
exclaiming : 

"In those days" (before the Reformation) 
'^what did they when they helped the scholars? 
Marry I they maintained and gave them livings 
that were very papists and professed the Pope's 
doctrine; and now that God's word is brought to 
light, and many earnestly study and labour to set 
it forth, now almost no man helpeth to main- 
tain them. " , , 

"Truly," he said, in another sermon, "it is a 
pitiful thing to see schools so neglected; every 
trae Christian ought to lament the same * * * 
to consider what hath been plucked from abbeys, 
colleges and chantries, it is marvel no more to be 
bestowed upon this holy office of salvation. It 
may well be said bv us that the Lord complaineth 
by his prophet * * * 'My house ye have de- 
serted, and ye run every one to his own house.' 

* * * Schools are not maintained; scholars 
have not exhibitions. * * * It would pity a 
man's heart to hear that, that I hear of the state 
of Cambridge; what it is in Oxford I cannot tell. 

* * * I think there be at this day (A. D. 1550) 
ten thousand students less than were within these 
twenty years, and fewer preachers. ' ' 

The above authorities and a quotation are taken 
from the work entitled "Henry the Eighth and the 
English Monasteries", by F. A. Gasquet (Nimmo, Lon- 
don), pp. 472, 473. 

Nature and Scope of "The Early Universities" 

The next and last two sentences of the seven open- 
ing sentences of Prof. Woodward 's address are as fol- 
lows: - X J 

"As the Universities grew the course of study 
slowly expanded. In the beginning they were 
largely Latin Grammar Schools for monks and 
priests. ' ' 



— 24 — 

I presume it is probably true that "the early Uni- 
versities", like modern Universities in that respect, 
grew after they were first established, and possibly 
the course of study slowly expanded; it would only 
be in the natural order that such a course should take 
place, even in a University. But the first sentence in 
the above statement of Prof. Woodward's address 
must be taken in connection with the sentence which 
immmediately follows. 

If in the next sentence the Professor means to say 
that either Oxford or Cambridge, or both, or the 
"early Universities" of Europe, were largely or 
merely Latin Grammar Schools for monks and priests 
he is very much mistaken. I think the authorities 
which I have already cited show that this was not and 
could not be the case. To state or to intimate that 
those Universities were merely (or even "largely") 
Latin Grammar Schools for anyone, is to state a mani- 
fest absurdity. Certainly, in the early ages of those 
Universities many who attended the Universities were 
monks, and many of them were students who subse- 
quently became priests; but those Universities were 
largely for poor scholars, so that at the time of the so- 
called Eeformation and for centuries before that time 
Oxford and Cambridge, as well as many of the other 
early Universities of Europe, were attended by thou- 
sands of scholars — a great number of them poor men 
who got their education for nothing. 

Dr. Thomas Davidson, who is also the author of 
"Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideas," in his 
work entitled "History of Education", quoted from 
in "The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries", by 
Walsh, second ed., p. 64, says, speaking of the medie- 
val Universities: 



— 25 — 

*'Tlie number of students reported as having at- 
tended some of the Universities in those early 
days almost passes belief; e. g., Oxford is said to 
have had thirty thousand about the year 1300, and 
half that number even as early as 1224. The 
numbers attending the University of Paris were 
still greater. These numbers become less sur- 
prising when we remember with what poor ac- 
commodations — a bare room and an armful of 
straw— the students of those days were content, 
and what numbers of them even a single teacher 
like Abelard could, long before, draw into lonely 
retreats. That in the Twelfth and following cen- 
turies there was no lack of enthusiasm for study, 
notwithstanding the troubled conditions of the 
times, is very clear. The instruction given at the 
nniversities, moreover, reacted upon the lower 
schools, raising their standard and supplying 
them with competent teachers. Thus, in the Thir- 
teenth and Fourteenth centuries, education rose 
in many European states to a height which it had 
not attained since the days of Seneca and Quin- 
tilian. '' ' 

I believe I have now demonstrated, by unquestion- 
able authority— largely the authority of distinguished 
Protestant writers — the inaccuracies (not to say ab- 
surdities) contained in the seven opening sentences 
of Prof. Woodward's address before the students of 
the School of Mines and Metallurgy of the University 
of Missouri. 

Not only are the statements quoted herein from 
Prof. Woodward's address, in the particulars pointed 
out, incorrect, but no one can read those sentences 
without seeing that the purpose of the statements was 
to lead the unsophisticated students listening to the 
lecture to believe that we are indebted to Protestant- 
ism not only for the existence of '*the early Universi- 
ties", but for nearly all the learning of the day. This 



— 26 — 

is the attitude of mind of Prof. Calvin M. Woodward. 
The Professor, when he delivered that address, was 
Dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture 
of Washington University, of St. Louis, Missouri, and 
his lecture containing these statements is published, 
and in this sense endorsed, by the University of Mis- 
souri. 

In the seven opening sentences of Prof. Woodward's 
address, as well as in the matter which immediately 
follows those sentences, the learned Professor has un- 
dertaken to minimize the importance of "the early 
Universities", with the evident purpose of endeavor- 
ing to show that, as those Universities were consti- 
tuted before the sixteenth century, they were of little 
consequence; he also, evidently, confuses the curri- 
culum of primary or grammar schools or colleges with 
that of the Universities themselves. No scholar, we 
apprehend, will deny that John Henry Newman 
(Cardinal Newman) is a reasonably good authority on 
the history of Oxford and of the "early Universities"; 
besides, in writing on these subjects, Cardinal New- 
man refers to well-known authorities, such for in- 
stance as Huber. In his Historical Sketches, vol. 3 (I 
here refer to the edition of 1899, published by Long- 
mans, Green & Co., London), Cardinal Newman de- 
votes chapters XVIII and XIX to Oxford. All of the 
matter contained in those chapters contradicts, in al- 
most every particular, the gratuitous statements of 
Prof. Woodward as to Oxford or other ' ' early Univer- 
sities". At page 223 of this volume, Newman states: 

"As in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
French, German and Italian students had flocked 
to the University of Oxford and made its name 
famous in distant lands, so in the fifteenth, all 
ranks and classes of the nation furnished it nnth 
pupils". * * * (Italics mine.) 



- 27 — 

Then, in the same book, Newman devotes chapter 
XIII to the subject *' Schools of Charlemagne", under 
which heading he refers to the famous schools of 
Paris and to the famous University of that name — all 
founded and established long before the fourteenth 
century. 

Anent Prof. Woodward's statement that the ** early 
Universities were largely Grammar Schools for monks 
and priests", Cardinal Newman says, at pages 160 and 
161 of the book referred to above: 

'*I conclude by enumerating the characteristic 
distinctions, laid down by Bulaeus, between the 
public or grammar schools founded by Charle- 
magne, and the Universities into which eventually 
some of them grew, or, as he would say, which 
Charlemagne also founded. 

First, he says, they differ from each other ra- 
tione disciplinae. The Scliolae Minores" (the 
Grammar schools) ''only taught the Trivium 
(viz. Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric) and the Quadriv- 
ium (viz. Geometry, Astronomy, Arithmetic and 
Music) — the seven liberal Arts; whereas the 
Scholae Majores" (the Universities) ''added Med- 
icine, Law, Theology." 

On the following page (162) of the same book, the 
learned and scholarly Newman, himself an Oxford 
man and one of its greatest Alumni, speaking of an- 
other difference between the "early Universities" and 
the Grammar schools, says: 

"The third difference between the greater and 
lesser schools lies, ratione fundatorum. Popes, 
Emperors and Kings are founders of Universities; 
lesser authorities in Church and State are the 
founders of the Colleges and Schools." 



— 28 — 

As to the Study of Civil Law in the * ' Early 
Universities" 

Civil Law was taught in the "early Universities '^ 
on the Continent of Europe and in England, and we 
are greatly indebted to them for its development. The 
great Bracton, whose name appears as Judge of the 
Aula Regis on the Fine Rolls in A. D. 1249, was a stu- 
dent at Oxford, where he took the degree of Doctor of 
Laws. He wrote a most comprehensive and syste- 
matic work on the Laws of England in five volumes^ 
entitled de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, which 
is modelled after the Institutes of Justinian. Black- 
stone, in Book 1, *72, speaking of authors "to whom 
great respect is paid by students of the Common law", 
refers specifically to Bracton and to Bracton 's famous 
work, "The Laws and Customs of England." Prof. 
Paul Vinegradoff (The Athenaeum, July 19, 1884), 
writing of this great and epoch-making literary work 
of Bracton, says that it is a treatise which "testifies 
to the influence of Roman jurisprudence and of its 
medieval exponents, but at the same time remains a 
statement of genuine English law, a statement so de- 
tailed and accurate that there is nothing to match it 
in the whole legal literature of the Middle Ages". 

Bracton, like nearly all of the judges of his time, 
was an ecclesiastic; he was Chancellor of Exeter Ca- 
thedral from 1264 until his death in 1268, although, 
as the King's Clerk, engaged in the King's business, 
he could seldom have kept residence at Exeter. 

Another great writer on the English law is Littleton. 
He made himself almost immortal by his work on 
Tenures; he died August 23, 1481, and his tomb is in 
Worcester Cathedral. He was a Catholic, and his work 



— 29 ~ 

vas done and his death occurred long before the Refor- 
mation. His name occurs in the Paston letters of 1445 
AS that of a well-known counsel. After enjoying many 
honors in his profession of law, in 1466 he was made 
Judge of the Common Pleas. Of Littleton's work on 
Tenures, Sir Edward Coke (the author of Coke upon 
Littleton) wrote, it is "the most perfect and absolute 
work that was ever written in any human language". 
Littleton had obtained a name and fame at the Bar at 
least five years before the printing press was invented 
and long before it was known in England. The En- 
cyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, Vol. XIV, p. 705, 
states that there are three early MSS. of Littleton's 
work on Tenures in the University Library at Cam- 
bridge, and that one of these formerly contained a note 
on its first page to the effect that it was bought in St. 
Paul's Churchyard on July 20, 1480, showing that it 
was in circulation before that time. The same author- 
ity, at the same page, states: 

"The earliest printed edition seems to be that 
by John Letton and William de Machlinia, two 
printers who probably came from the Continent 
and carried on their business in partnership, as 
their note to the edition of Littleton states, in 
civitate Londoniarum, juxta ecclesiam omnium 
Sanctorum." 

While one of the names would indicate that one of 
the printers in question was not an Englishman, and 
while it is, perhaps, a fair inference that Letton and 
de Machlinia were partners since their names are 
coupled together, the Latin which the writer in the En- 
cyclopedia quotes merely states, in effect, that the 
shop was located, or the work of printing the book 
done, in the City of London, next to, or hard by, ' ' the 



— 30 — 

Church of All Saints. ' ' Which shows again how close 
(even physically) to such good works the Catholic 
Church was in pre-Reformation times. Therefore, the 
printers did what was a very common and natural 
thing to do in those days, i. e., stated in their note to 
this most valuable work, not only that it was printed 
in the City of London but next to the Church of All 
Saints. 

The Hon. M. F. Morris, in his "History of the Devel- 
opment of the Law" (ed. Jolm Byrne & Co., Wash- 
ington, 1909), shows how three noted codes of Mari- 
time Law were formulated in Europe during the three 
centuries between A. D. 1000 and A. D. 1300, and that 
the oldest of these codes, the Consolato del Mare, was 
promulgated before A. D. 1096. It was a compilation 
of comprehensive rules for all maritime subjects, 
marked by the most liberal and equitable spirit (229). 
Judge Morris also shows (237) how it was reserved 
for the "Church of the Middle Ages to deal with the 
nations as nations, and to procure them to deal with 
each other as members of the common family of 
states, upon the principles of equity and justice, and 
in accordance with the tenets of Christianity". 

The same author, after referring to Feudalism and 
the conditions in Europe after the invasions of the 
barbarians, and to the subsequent formative period, 
shows (238) how the "Church ever sought to super- 
induce a kindlier feeling, to induce the nations to re- 
frain from border warfare, and to submit their con- 
troversies to arbitration; and many a controversy be- 
tween nations in the Middle Ages was submitted to 
the Roman Pontiff as arbitrator". 



And the same author states (239-240): 

"Grotius, Puffendorff and Vattal, the great 
writers upon International Law, merely took up 
the theories of the Roman Pontiffs and elaborated 
them into regular treatises on the subject. Papal 
rescripts and Papal action had already done the 
work which these writers sought to expound. 
However much its sources may be ignored by 
those who have written upon the subject,^ the fact 
is patent that modern International Law is the re- 
sult of Christianity and Papal influence through- 
out the Middle Ages, and that without these in- 
fluences the evil genius Feudalism would have 
made it impossible." 

And the author adds (240) : 

''The renaissance of literature" (due to the cul- 
ture which sprang from the Universities of the 
Middle Ages) ''and the discovery of America 
sealed the doom of Feudalism ; although to a cer- 
tain extent, in the bitterness of strife engendered 
bv the Lutheran Reformation, it received a new 
lease of life and was enabled for a time to throttle 
the growing spirit of liberty. In the two hundred 
and fifty years, from the outbreak of the Refor- 
mation to our American Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, it struggled fiercely to retain its existence 
and its supremacy; but the struggle was in vain." 

Dr. Walsh, in "The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centur- 
ies", showing what the Popes and the "early Univer- 
sities" did in the matter of perfecting and developing 
the law, at pages 370 and 371, says: 

"How much the great Popes of the century" 
(the thirteenth) "accomplished for the founda- 
tion and development of law, can only be appre- 
ciated by those who realize the extent of their 
contributions to the codification of canon law. It 
was the arrangement of this in definite shape that 
put the civil jurists of the time at work setting 



— 32 — 

their house in order. Iniiocent III, who is de- 
servedly called Pater Juris devoted a great deal 
of his wonderful energy and genius to the arrange- 
ment of canon law. Tliis ])laced for the first time 
the canon law on an absolutely sure footing and 
filled up many gaps that formerly existed. Greg- 
ory IX commissioned his chaplain, the famous 
Kaymond of Pennafort, who had been a professor 
of canon law in the University of Bologna, to 
codify all the decretals since the time of Gratian. 
This work was officially promulgated in 1234, four 
years of labor having been devoted to it. The laws 
are in the form of decisions pronounced in cases 
submitted to the Pope from all parts of Christen- 
dom, including many from the distant East and 
not a few from England and Scotland. Gregory's 
decretals were published in five books; a supple- 
ment under the name of the sixth book was pub- 
lished under Pope Boniface VIII in 1298. In this, 
for the first time, abstract rules of law are laid 
down extracted from actual judgments. A com- 
pendium of Roman law w^s added so as to ap- 
proximate canon and civil procedure. 

This gives the best possible idea of how deeply 
the Popes and the authorities in canon law of the 
century were laying the foundations of canonical 
practice and procedure for all times. The ori- 
gins of modern law are to be found here, and yet 
not, as might be anticipated because of the dis- 
tance in time, in such a confused or unmanageable 
fashion that they are not worth while consulting, 
but on the contrary with such clarity and distinct- 
ness and with such orderly arrangement, that they 
have been the subjects of study on the part of dis- 
tinguished jurists for most of the centuries ever 
since, and have never lost their interest for the 
great lawyers and canonists, who prefer to know 
things from the foundation rather than accept 
them at second hand." 

What Dr. Walsh states is the conviction, I believe, 
of every thorough student of law, who has carried his 



— 33 ~ 

studies back to the histoiy of the origin and founda- 
tions of the law and followed the source to its devel- 
opment in modern times. 

The ••Early Universities" and Medicine 

In the matter of what was taught in the ''early 
Universities", a recent contribution to medical his- 
tory (the address of Prof. Clifford AUbutt, Regius 
Professor of Physic at the University of Cambridge. 
England, before the Congress of Arts and Sciences at 
the Louisiana Purchase p]xposition, held in St. Louis 
in 1904, ''On the Historical Relations of Medicine and 
Surgery Down to the Sixteenth Century"), points out 
some surprising anticipations of what is most mod- 
ern in medicine and surgeiy, in tlie teachings of Will- 
iam of Salicet and his pupil Lanfranc, Professors of 
Medicine and Surgery in the Italian Universities and 
in the University of Paris during the thirteenth cen- 
tury. 

A rich mine of information as to what was taught 
and accomplished in "the early Universities" in the 
matter of surgery and medicine, etc., and how these 
sciences were fostered by the Popes and the Catholic 
Church is contained in several of the works of Dr. 
Walsh, notably in "Makers of Modern Medicine" and 
in "The Popes and Science", both published by Ford- 
ham University Press, New York, in 1907 and 1908, 
respectively. 

In his work "The Popes and Science", at pages 167 
to 198, Dr. Walsh treats of great physicians and sur- 
geons during the Middle Ages and up to and includ- 
ing the fourteenth century. Among them he refers 
to Guy de Chauliac, who flourished in the second half 



— 34 — 

of the fourteenth century, and who, as Dr. Walsh 
points out (p. 181) 

"has been deservedly called the Father of Mod- 
em Surgery. Whose contributions to surgery", 
as Dr. Walsh states (pp. 181-182), "occupy a 
prominent place in every history of medicine that 
one picks up. While the works of other great 
writers in surgery of the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries have, as a rule, only come to be 
commonly known during the latter part of the 
nineteenth century, Guy de Chauliac's position 
and the significance of his work and his writings 
have been a commonplace in the history of medi- 
cine for as long as it has been written seriously. 
We have already stated in several places in this 
volume his relations to the Popes. He was a cham- 
berlain of the Papal Court while it was at Avig- 
non, and while he was teaching and developing 
surgery at the University of Montpelier he was 
also body physician to three of the Popes, and 
the intimate friend and influential adviser to 
whom they turned for consultation in matters re- 
lating to medical education and to science gen- 
erally. ' ' 

At page 182 Dr. Walsh quotes Professor Allbutt 
{ubi supra) as stating of de Chauliac: "Of his (de 
Chauliac's) substantial advances in surgery no suflB- 
cient account is possible". Dr. Walsh (pp. 182-3) 
then proceeds to quote from Professor Allbutt to show 
some few of the wonderful advances in surgery made 
by de Chauliac, which would be too long to recite here. 
But as showing the intimate relation of the work of 
de Chauliac in surgery and medicine with the then 
Universities of Europe, and how Guy de Chauliac ap- 
preciated the support and encouragement which he 
had received from the Universities of Europe and from 
the Pope, I here quote from page 184 of Dr. Walsh's 
book "The Popes and Science": 



— 35 — 

*'He wrote an immense text-book of surgery, 
from which his teaching may be learned with ab- 
solute authenticity. The great significance at- 
tached to Guy's writings by his contemporaries 
and successors will be readily appreciated from 
the immense number of manuscript copies, origi- 
nal editions in print, and the many translations 
which are extant. This monument of scientific 
surgery has for dedication a sentence that would 
alone and of itself obliterate all the nonsense that 
has been talked about Papal opposition to the de- 
velopment of surgery. It runs as follows: 

"(I dedicate this work) 'To you my masters, 
physicians of Montpelier, Bologna, Paris, and 
Avignon, especially you of the Papal Court with 
whom I have been associated in the service of the 
Roman Pontiffs.' The exact words as given by 
Pagel are 'Vobis dominis meis medicis Montispes- 
sulani, Bononiae, Parisiis atque Avinionis, prae- 
cipue papalibus, quihus me in servitio Romanorum 
pontificum associavi.' " 

And Guy de Chauliac is only one of the great phy- 
sicians and surgeons of the period up to the fifteenth 
century who taught medicine and surgery in the 
"early Universities" of Europe as they existed for 
centuries before the Reformation. 



The "Early Universities" and Theology 

The "early Universities", without exception, also 
exercised the faculty of Theology — provided Theolog- 
ical chairs, taught Theology and conferred the degree 
of Doctor of Divinity. In this respect they were very 
different from many so-called Universities of today. 

As to this important difference between the "early 
Universities ' ' and many modern, so-called Universities, 
sometimes designated as "non-sectarian", Cardinal 



— 36 ~ 

Newman, in one of his discourses delivered at Dublin 
about the year 1850, says: 

"It is the fashion just now, as you very well 
know, to erect so-called Universities, without 
making any provision in them at all for Theolog- 
ical chairs. Institutions of this kind exist both 
here and in England. Such a procedure, though 
defended by writers of the generation just passed 
with much plausible argument and not a little wit, 
seems to me an intellectual absurdity; and my 
reason for saying so runs, with whatever abrupt- 
ness, into the form of a syllogism: — A University, 
I should lay down, by its very name professes to 
teach universal knowledge; Theology is surely a 
branch of knowledge; how then is it possible for 
it to profess all branches of knowledge, and yet 
to exclude from the subjects of its teaching one 
which, to say the least, is as important and as 
large as any of them? I do not see that either 
premiss of this argument is open to exception. 

"As to the range of University teaching, cer- 
tainly the very name of University is inconsistent 
with restrictions of any kind. Whatever was the 
original reason of the adoption of that term, 
which is unknown (in Roman law it means a Cor- 
poration, Vid. Keuffel, de Scholis.), I am only 
putting on it its popular, its recognized sense, 
when I say that a University should teach univer- 
sal knowledge. That there is a real necessity for 
this universal teaching in the highest schools of 
intellect, I will show by-and-by ; here it is sufficient 
to say that such universality is considered by 
writers on the subject to be the very characteris- 
tic of a University, as contrasted with other seats 
of learning. Thus Johnson, in his Dictionary, de- 
fines it to be 'a school where all arts and faculties 
are taught;' and Mosheim, writing as an histor- 
ian, says that, before the rise of the University of 
Paris, — for instance, at Padua, or Salamanca, 
or Cologne, — 'the whole circle of sciences then 
known was not taught;' but that the school of 



— 37 — 

Paris, ^ which exceeded all others in various re- 
spects, as well as in the number of teachers and 
students, was the first to embrace all the arts and 
sciences, and therefore first became a University.' 
(Hist. vol. ii., p. 529. London, 1841.) 

'*If, with other authors, we consider the word to 
be derived from the invitation which is held out 
by a University to students of every kind, the re- 
sult is the same ; for, if certain branches of knowl- 
edge were excluded, those students of course would 
be excluded also, who desired to pursue them. 

"Is it, then, logically consistent in a seat of 
learning to call itself a University, and to exclude 
Theology from the number of its studies ? * * * 

"But this, of course, is to assume that Theology 
is a science, and an important one, so I will throw 
my argument into a more exact form. I say, then, 
that if a University be, from the nature of the 
case, a place of instruction, where universal knowl- 
edge is professed, and if in a certain University, 
so-called, the subject of Religion is excluded, one 
of two conclusions is inevitable, — either, on the 
one hand, that the province of Religion is very 
barren of real knowledge, or, on the other hand, 
that in such University one special and important 
branch of knowledge is omitted. I say, the advo- 
cate of such an institution must say this, or he 
must say that; he must own, either that little or 
nothing is known about the Supreme Being, or that 
his seat of learning calls itself what it is not. This 
is the thesis which I lay down, and on which I shall 
insist as the subject of this Discourse. I repeat, 
such a compromise between religious parties, as 
is involved in the establishment of a University 
which makes no religious profession, implies that 
those parties severally consider, — not indeed that 
their own respective opinions are trifles in a moral 
and practical point of view — of course not; but 
certainly as much as this, that they are not 
knowledge. Did they in their hearts believe that 
their private views of religion, whatever they are, 
were absolutely and objectively true, it is incon- 



- 38 - 

ceivable that they would so insult them as to con- 
sent to their omission in an Institution which is 
bound, from the nature of the case — from its very 
idea and its name — to make a profession of all 
sorts of knowledge whatever."^ 

Nevertheless, Prof. Woodward has it that: "The 
early Universities" were "largely Grammar Schools 
for monks and priests." 

In conclusion, I submit: 

{a) The sketch of "the early Universities" as given 
by Prof. Woodward in the opening sentences of his 
address is, to say the least, inaccurate in every essen- 
tial respect. 

(b) The University of the State has made a mis- 
take in giving publicity to these statements in Prof. 
Woodward's lecture, as they involve a gratuitous 
championing of Protestantism and incorrectly give 
credit to Protestantism for things done by Catholi- 
cism. 

(c) The "early Universities" were not what Prof. 
Woodward describes them to have been, and deserve a 
credit which, it would seem, the learned Professor 
would deny them. 

PAUL BAKEWELL. 
St. Louis, March, 1910. 



t This quotation is from J. H. Newman's Idea of a University, 
3rd ed.; Pickering, London, 1873, pp. 19-22. 



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